As the daughter of the Polish-French painter Balthus and his wife Setsuko Klossowska de Rola, Harumi Klossowska has lived immersed in the extraordinary milieu of modern art history – her love for the natural, earthy éléments nurturedamongst the sandstone and mosaics of the Villa Medici where she spent her early childhood. Then, when she was 7 years old, her father unveiled a secret room to her in the Galerie Claude Bernard in Paris, filled with rough and semi-precious stones, leaving her shocked and triggering a lifelong passion for jewellery design. In her primal and exotic creations, Harumi blends an innate sensibility for raw and precious materials – each of them a monumental ornament imbued with the warmth and mystery of Harumi’s unique perspective between East and West. Harumi’s elephant ring is crafted myrtle wood with tusks of white gold, its eyes a pair of diamonds.

“The myrtle tree is about love, fertility, youth, peace and money,” explains Harumi. “It takes on the colours of the minerals from the soil in which it grows and this brings me back to one of the main reasons why I often use wood in my creations. As for the elephant, it is synonymous with royalty in Thailand, and an elephant “never forgets”. According to Pliny the Elder, it’s the most “human” animal in terms of sensibility. Elephants are fiercely protective of their cubs and they mourn their dead – they reflect our highest human ideals.”